After the second restoration having held no public office, Daru devoted himself to his favorite studies; and to his genius and industry we are indebted for two important, historical works: the life of Sully and the history of Venice. The latter appear-governed by principles. He regretted that the ed in 1819 in seven volumes; and a second edition was issued in 1821 in eight

Rights, that all men are born free and indepen- chief difference between republican, and other dent,' to Locke. If this principle were true, he governments, and which could alone afford sethought it could not be dangerous. He main-curity to the East. tained that the cases cited by Mr. Barbour, of Orange, in which these majorities are not allow ed to prevail, had no application. That the right of majorities to govern is to be found in the social character of man, and in the nature of things, and gave an illustration from a supposed case of a few individuals about to form a community. He insisted that the Right of Suffrage was anterior to society. He said if power should be conferred according to wealth, it would create an oligarchy.'

He then shewed that, in the new distribution of power on the white basis, whatever was lost in the extreme East and extreme West, would be gained by the middle districts, which would be 'the safest deposit the slaveholder could desire.' He then referred to the services and sufferings of the western militia, during the late war, to show that they had common interests and feelings with the East; these services too, he regarded as some set-off against the inequality of taxes, which would, moreover, be every day diminishing. He spoke of the discontents and mischiefs which would follow the adoption of the compound basis, and the yet greater evils of severing the state. He thought too, the policy supported by the East, not only anti-republican, but short sighted,' and spoke of the fluctuations of property, as furnishing strong reasons why those who now possess it, should not invest it with great privileges, which would so probably operate against their own offspring.

October 31. Mr Stanard in the chair. Mr. Scott of Fauquier, proposed, to amend Judge Green's amendment by adding, "and in the senate, the white population exclusively," and on the question, addressed the committee. He said, that his constituents had united with the people of the West in bringing about this convention, but 'I fear' said he that they are likely to prove Roman allies, and that we shall only have the privilege of changing our masters.' He said that all the questions which could arise, were mere questions of the 'fitness of means to an end,' which end was to secure liberty to the people of Virginia and their posterity. He spoke of the several expedients which had been resorted to, to prevent the abuse of power; as to give no more than was necessary; and to distribute it into several departments; and he considered this also to be necessary: far as practicable, to deposit power in the hands of those only, whose interest it is not to abuse it.' He then dilated on the powerful and universal influence of interest, as constituting the

as

After showing, by reference to documents and admissions of other gentlemen, that the country west of the Blue Ridge either does now, er soon will, contain a majority of the white population, he adverted to the difference of the two, in the taxes they paid, and the number of slaves they held. He stated that the slaveholding counties in the West could afford no protection, as even in these, the slave holders were not more than one fourth of the voters.

He next spoke of the influence the present question may have in future apportionments of the members of Congress in Virginia, and said that the seven members, 'purchased,' as it were, by the slavebolders, will be divided as common property, between the East and the West. He argued that if such a distribution were forbidden by a constitutional proviso, plausible arguments may be found to violate it, drawn from the Constitution of the United States. He then adverted to the different interests of the East and the West, as to internal improvements, and referred to the Charlottesville convention, and the scheme of improving the internal navigation of the state, proposed in the last legislature, to show the small comparative interest of the middle district. He referred also to the money expended on James River, for the same purpose, and he insisted that power should be so apportioned, as to protect these different interests.

Mr. Naylor, of Hampshire, after stating the points in controversy, insisted on the right of the majority to govern, and appealed to the general assent of the people to this principle. He justified the resort to elementary principles in government, as well as in other sciences; and to the supposition of a state, prior to society, for the sake of ascertaining those elementary principles. He denied that the Right of Suffrage, which he maintained to be original and inherent, should be affected by property, as the rule would not only be unjust, but fluctuating. He insisted that the equality claimed by him for the poor man was a less evil than the inequality claimed by others for the rich man, in the degree that personal liberty is of more value than money. He showed how the poor man might be oppressed, by working on the roads, by poll taxes, double militia duty &c.; and the unreasonableness that the rich man, who is in no danger except from money bills, which are but as one in fifty, should have the controul of the other forty-nine. He said that political power was necessary to defend natural rights. He dwelt on the natural

of taxation and representation as inseparable correlatives;" referied to occasions in England, in which the principle had been acted on; he said it was the governing principle in the American Revolution; and is expressly recognized in the federal constitution. As to the numerous petitions that had been presented in favor of a convention, he said that many of the petitions if they had imagined that the effect would be to "to take their money ad libitum and ad infinitum," they would have done as his constituents had done, "face to the right about;" for these very petitions for a convention had been accompanied with petitions for retrenchment.

Genl. Gordon of Albemarle said, that it was now attempted for the first time to introduce a principle at war with every notion which Amer

influence of wealth as a reason it should not be clothed with legislative power; and added that the power contended for by the East, if distributed equally among its districts, might subject the rich in a minority of those districts to the poor in a majority. Nay farther, that the additional weight acquired by a single county, would, from the unequal distribution of property, increase the power of the poor more than that of the rich. Nor could this danger be effectually guarded against, except, by giving, to each individual, votes in proportion to his wealth, which no man would endure, and he presumed no one would attempt. He referred to the present constitution of France. He spoke of the past complaints of the West, and of the feelings of disappointment which the present proposition would occasion. He added that in the confi-icans had been taught to hold sacred, and which dence of the march of public sentiment,' they goes to make the elective power quadrate with would rather let the constitution remain for the wealth. present, unchanged. He contrasted the present declining state of Virginia, with her natural advantages, and asked what else her inferiority to other states 'could proceed from, but from a defect in her frame of government?' 'Let us remedy that,' said he, and see if Virginia is not regenerated, disenthralled, redeemed, and whether she will not again advance and regain the station she has lost.' He concluded, with noticing the arguments drawn from their want of canals and roads, and justified the aid his part of the state, (the North Western,) had asked, from the large grants which had been made to James River, but said that such unimportant incidents should have no influence on the present question.

He then showed that the two middle districts of the state (lying on each side of the Blue Ridge) contain a majority of the white population, a majority of the slaves, and pay the major part of the taxes; yet in a house, containing two hundred and fifty delegates, these majorities are represented by only eighty-six members. He made other statements to prove that the extreme eastern and western districts had both more than their share of representation. Property, he said, in any just scheme of representation, is not to be regarded but as belonging to the whole of society; but when it is admitted to a share of power, as possessed by individuals, a house of lords is thereby created; and that the principle is the same, if power be given to a particular section of the state, because it has more property. He argued that as the non-slave holders were majority in the state, adopt whatever basis they may, it could afford no additional security to the class of slave holders, if the right of suffrage

is extended.

Mr. John S. Barbour, of Culpeper, denied that the will of the majority should be the only rule of action. He said, that there were two securities necessary in our representative system. The first, "to secure the fidelity of the representation to the constituent body; the second, to guard one part of the community against the injustice of the other." He asked, if the will of the majority is alone to be regarded, "why is it that we have constitutions at all?" To shew that the fears of the east are unfounded, he relied on the predominant influence of self interest, and appealed to Mr. Doddridge whether he had not in 1823, avowed the propriety of basing our representation in Congress on the white population exclusively? He then referred to the opposition to the " defence bill,' during the last war, from the western members, and some of the east-vileged order. ern also, from local considerations.

He insisted that no provision in the constitution, by way of guarantee, coutd be relied on, asit would be interpreted by the majority. He spoke

a

The cases adduced in which a mere majority werenot allowed to prevail, he said, were exceptions to the general rule, and that to imitate them, would be "to make the medicine of the state its daily food." He denied also the force of examples drawn from England or France, as the first had at length become "little less than a military despotism," and that the evils of the French revolution" did not grow out of the misrule of the majority alone, but out of the resistance of a minority," and the existence of a pri

As to taxation for internal improvement, he defended the west for having originated past schemes or mismanaged them, by a reference to

the James River, and Ohio and Chesapeake canals.

without the aid of the general government. He disclaimed all local feelings, spoke of the libéral conduct of Virginia towards Kentucky, and in her cession of the north western territory. To settle the present question he thought concession necessary on both sides. He was an advocate for an extension of the right of suffrage. He adverted to what he had seen both in France and England of popular excess, which had at first made him pause, but his objections had at length yielded to the convictions that they did not apply to our country, which differed from ev

In answer to Mr. Barbour of Orange, he said, it is from experiment alone that experience is obfained, that our own free government itself is but an experiment which has happily succeeded, and that many of the other states had remodelled their constitutions, and no public calamity had ensued. He said that men do not form communities because they suspect, but because they love each other; and that our jealousy ought to be only against introducing the principles of aristocracy or monarchy in our constitu-ery" other nation on the face of the earth."

tion.

He adverted to the evils of not agreeing in any amendments to the constitution; said the fears of the east were unfounded, as they were now entitled to a majority of nineteen delegates, (in a house of one hundred and twenty) and he doubted whether there would even be a majority beyond the Alleghany; but that the black population would increase in the tide water district, whose policy it should therefore be to make friends of the majority. He insisted that the interest of the valley district was the same as that of the east, both from the course of their trade, and their being slave holders. Slavery, he said, is more equally diffused there than in the east.

The member then spoke at length in favor of extending the right of suffrage, and argued that as labour was the source of wealth, it was better entitled to representation than property. He insisted on the insufficiency of the checks that had been mentioned to the house of delegates; and said there was no one that was effectual except responsibility to the people.

After a short debate between Messrs. Mercer Johnson, Scott and Nicholas concerning the course of the discussion, and in explanation of the votes they should respectively give, on Mr. Scott's amendment proposing the "white basis," in the senate, and the "compound basis" in the house of delegates, the question was taken on that amendment, and decided in the negative, by forty nine votes to forty three, the friends of the principle of a mixed basis, generally now voting for the "white basis" in the senate, and the general advocates of a white basis voting against it.

Mr. Monroe then, for the first time, addressed the committee. He spoked of the divisions that existed concerning the constitution, and of the necessity for a conciliatory spirit; adverted to the ruinous consequences of severing the state. He then briefly stated the claims of the west and the east, spoke of the slave population, and the difficulties growing out of it, and the impossibility of getting rid of the difficulties by emancipation,

He thought the" arrangement of districts," and a protection of property by some reasonable guarantee, did not necessarily affect the question of equal rights. It would give no advantage to the rich over the poor in the same district. He adverted to two modes of effecting this object; one by combining white population with taxation, as in South Carolina, and giving each district its due share of representation, according to this combined ratio : the other, by taking white population for the basis of one house, and the combined basis for the other. If the latter course were taken, he recommended the compound basis for the senate, rather than the house of delegates. The popular branch," he said, "will then originate every thing, according as they shall think most for the good of the country; and if, through the stimulus of heated feeling, they propose any improper measures, the senate will operate as an immediate check."

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